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» Fighting carbon with fire: a video brief on Indigenous people and climate change for the United Nations University

Fighting carbon with fire: a video brief on Indigenous people and climate change for the United Nations University

Fire has been used by Bininj (Aboriginal) people for managing habitats and food resources across northern Australian over millennia. The secret of fire in our traditional knowledge is that it is a thing that brings the land alive again. So we don’t necessarily see fire as bad and destructive — it can be a good thing.

Unfortunately, today fire is not being well looked after in many places in Northern Australia. However, it continues to be managed well around the outstations where people live all the time, such as at Kabulwarnamyo, where I live. To go forward, we need to encourage our children in the ways of the past. Fire must be managed and people must be living on their country (tribal land) to manage that fire.